Perhaps the most surprising element of the general elections was the low voter turnout. According to the latest figures from the Election and Boundaries Commission, only 53.92% of eligible voters turned up at the polls. It is reported to be the second lowest in our history. Given the high-pitched nature …
Read More »Vaneisa: Suffering for silence, with missing fireworks legislation and EMA inactivity
Nearly 80 per cent of the people responding to a survey done by the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) said fireworks affected them negatively. Without knowing the extent of the survey, it is still a large and significant proportion. Another of their surveys said the majority of the animals affected (60 …
Read More »Vaneisa: The uncaring voice of silence—what is the point of the EMA?
For decades, the approach and departure of festive occasions—Carnival, Independence Day, Divali, Christmas, Old Year’s Night—have elicited desperate missives. Complaints about unbearable levels of noise from unrelenting sound systems and fireworks have poured out to the impervious Environmental Management Authority (EMA). Nothing’s changed. On its website, the EMA describes four …
Read More »Daly Bread: Going out with a bang! AG’s fireworks ‘solution’ exacerbates the problem
Cabinet members Stuart Young, Clarence Rambharat and Marvin Gonzalez are to be commended for taking a public stand on legislation regarding the sale and use of fireworks—in disagreement with the proposed legislation with which the Attorney General is taking centre-stage. The AG has again gone out on a limb, unaccompanied …
Read More »Vaneisa: A matter of rights, responsibility, and respect for your neighbours
It was just after midnight, Old Year’s night, when fireworks pierced the roof and ceiling of my niece’s bedroom, landing on the bed where she slept. Fortunately, her baby son was not lying next to her as the noise and smouldering embers on her sheet woke her up, and no …
Read More »Letter to the Editor: Is the Gov’t waiting for a fireworks fatality before it acts?
“Admittedly, fireworks are visually spectacular and, in countries which value every citizen’s rights, families can view amazing firework displays for a limited period of time in a safe venue. “But the indiscriminate use of fireworks is hurting people and it seems as if our government—both present and past—is waiting for …
Read More »Letter to the Editor: Why doesn’t EMA protect residents from noise pollution?
The following Letter to the Editor was sent to Wired868 by Josephine S Aché as a call to arms against noise pollution, which intensifies during the Carnival season: This is an Open Letter to The Air Committee, responsible for the Out In South Fete, held at the SAPA Car Park …
Read More »Ageing in this cussed country: Raffique Shah on how T&T treats senior citizens
In a few months, I shall cross another threshold of ageing, scoring seventy years of life and officially transitioning into the status of “old geezer.” The dawning of a new year set me thinking about the past and the future, although I know I have fewer years ahead of me …
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